A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzabar

A is for Aden and Z is for Zanzibar... Now what is between? For the world wide classical era philatelist and stamp collector, a country specific philatelic survey is offered by the blog author, Jim Jackson, with two albums: Big Blue, aka Scott International Part 1 (checklists available), and Deep Blue, aka William Steiner's Stamp Album Web PDF pages. In addition, "Bud" offers commentary and a look at his completely filled Big Blue. Interested? So into the Blues...

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ecuador

1901 Scott 151 1s brown & black

Jose Joaquin Olmedo

Quick History
Ecuador, off the northwest coast of South America, was constituted in 1830 after a civil war which split up the original members of the Republic of Gran Columbia. The Presidency of Quito was renamed the Republic of Ecuador ( In English "Equator").
The Capital is Quito, and the population was 3,000,000 in 1942.
Stamp issues of the Republic began in 1865.

Ecological note: The Galapagos Islands are well known, but all of Ecuador has the most biodiversity per square kilometer of any world nation.

1872 Scott 9 1/2r blue

Coat of Arms

Big Blue Picture
Big Blue '97, on 12 pages, has 198 regular, 54 air post, 7 official, and 20 postal tax stamps, for a total of 279 stamp spaces. The 2011 Scott Classic Specialized catalogue has 773 major stamp descriptions. Overall coverage by Big Blue is 37%.
Coverage is actually a reasonable 52% for regular and air post. But BB has no coverage of postage due stamps (17 descriptions). More significantly, it provides for only 7 spaces for the 218 official stamps in the Scott catalogue. I counted 120 official stamps in the affordable <$1-$2+ range. There are also an additional 25 postal tax stamps that are inexpensive. Altogether, I found a whopping 304 additional stamps that could be added by the BB collector. See "Additionals" for specifics...

4)As mentioned, a huge cache of affordable Official (120!) and Postal tax (25) stamps could be added by the BB collector.

5) Contrary to some other countries, there are not that many Ecuadorian stamps fighting for the same space in Big Blue. That's good. But for many stamps, Big Blue simply leaves them out altogether. :-)

6) The 1894-95 Rocafuerte issues were reprinted with thick paper. Beware: they are only worth minimum catalogue value.

Additionals...( <$1-$2+)
1892 President Juan Flores
30

1893 surcharged
Two stamp choices from checklist not taken from : 31,33,36,34,37,38,

Official stamps1892 (carmine overprint)O11,O12,O13,O14,O15,O16,O17,(<$1)
Comment: The tip of the iceberg; 106 more Official stamps that are affordable could be added.

Postal Tax stamps1920RA1(<$1)

1920RA2,RA3,RA7,(<$1)

1924RA20,RA21,(<$1)

1924RA18,RA19,(<$1)

1920-24RA10,RA11,(<$1)

1937RA39(<$1)

1934-40RA31,RA29,RA30,RA35,RA36,(<$1)RA41,RA38,RA49,RA48,(<$1)

1939 1s dull violet "Wrestlers"

The ringside spectators are smoking?!

Kinds of Blue
The '69 and '97 editions are identical in content.
The '47 and '41 editions are identical in content.

The "47 and '41 editions have a space for the 1892 Scott 30 5s purple ($1+) The '47/'41 editions also have under Officials, 5 blank spaces for the 1886-87 issue. Suggest O1,O2,O4,O7,O8,O9,($2+) as possibilities.

The '69 and '97 editions has three more space for the 1893 issue ( Scott 37 ($10+) & two blank spaces).
For the blank spaces, suggest 38($2+), and choices not taken (31,33,36,34,37,($2+-$10+))

1881 Scott 17 50c blue green

There are five different issues of the "Coat of Arms" design between 1865-1896

Big Blue Bottom Line
Very nice attractive inexpensive issues. Lots of Coat of Arms, and Portrait (often bi-colored) designs. If you like overprinted/surcharged, Officials, and Postal tax stamps though, there is a large gap in BB's presentation